Parental controls are used to limit access to content, such as violent or adult-themed programming. Typically, parents use parental controls to limit access of their children to programming which the parents have decided are inappropriate. Today, most televisions and television converter devices used in entertainment systems are equipped with some form of parental control. In addition to government mandated V-chip method, many subscriber-based content providers, such as cable television and satellite television providers, include their own parental control means as features within the television converter devices or other equipment that they provide to subscribers. However, the current means for instituting parental controls, be they V-chip based or part of a subscriber-based content provider system, are inadequate because of advances in television technology and inherent limitations in the current parental control technology.
Probably the most common parental control means is known as the V-chip method. A V-chip is a device that is now standard in TV sets sold in the United States. As of 1999, all new television sets (over 13 inches/33 cm) sold in the United States must contain a V-chip. The “V” stands for “violence,” and the goal of the chip is to allow parents to choose the level of violent TV programming that will be allowed into the home. The V-chip samples data contained in the vertical blanking interval (VBI), also know as the line 21 data area, of a standard television signal pertaining to the nature of that program in which they are embedded. These data, known as V-codes, are used by the V-chip to determine whether to show the programming on television or not. The V-chip samples the V-code and compares it to a pre-selected blocking level. If the rating of the programming exceeds the preset blocking level, the V-chip does not allow the TV to display the programming (i.e. it is blocked). Parents use an access code, which presumably only they know, to select from an on-screen menu a blocking level that they deem appropriate for the TV's user.
The V-chip method for parental control has become popular because of its ubiquitous nature. However users are limited to the V-chip system of classifying content. The V-chip system uses a rating system loosely based on the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system to classify television programming, using such codes as TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA (see Table 1) to classify all television programming. In essence, these are the blocking levels available. Because these relatively broad classifications are being used to classify the entire spectrum of television programming, users are often unable to lock out certain specific programs, or even types of programming, without locking out other programming which they do not find offensive, but which happen to share the same rating. This is a problem with the current V-chip method.
TABLE 1V-Chip Ratings and DescriptionsTV-YAll Children - This program is designed to beappropriate for all children. The themes and elementsin this program are specifically designed for a veryyoung audience, including children from ages 2-6.TV-Y7Directed to Older Children - This program isdesigned for children age 7 and above. It may bemore appropriate for children who have acquired thedevelopmental skills needed to distinguish betweenmake-believe and reality. Themes and elements inthis program may include mild physical or comedicviolence.TV-GGeneral Audience - Most parents would find thisprogram suitable for all ages. Although this ratingdoes not signify a program designed specifically forchildren, most parents may let younger childrenwatch this program unattended. It contains little orno violence, no strong language and little or nosexual dialogue or situations.TV-PGParental Guidance - This program may containsome material that some parents would findunsuitable for younger children. The program maycontain infrequent coarse language, limited violence,some suggestive sexual dialogue and/or situations.TV-14Parents Strongly Cautioned - This program isspecifically designed to be viewed by adults andtherefore may be unsuitable for children under 14.This program may contain sophisticated themes,sexual content, strong language and more intenseviolence.TV-MAMature Audience Only - This program isspecifically designed to be viewed by adults andtherefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.This program may contain mature themes, profanelanguage, graphic violence and explicit sexualcontent.
Subscriber-based satellite and cable television providers (programming distributors) typically give subscribers much more control and flexibility in blocking programming. This is achieved through the use of a more complex and often proprietary programming classification system (PCS). Often, a PCS includes a more detailed classifications scheme than the MPAA rating system. A PCS typically includes multiple PCS codes associated with the classifications that programming distributors. These PCS codes can be embedded in the television programming by the programming distributors at their head-end facility, may be included in a separate channel of the programming stream (such as in the electronic program guide, or EPG, data), or may be otherwise provided to the subscriber, such as via a telephone connection. In addition to the PCS, it is also common for programming distributors to allow users to block specific programs, for example by selecting them from the EPG.
Programming distributors normally implement such parental control methods via the television converter devices that they provide to their subscribers. Typically, a television converter device is required for each TV that the subscriber wished to view subscription television programming on. Television converter devices, thus, are designed to be collocated with a TV. Hence the name “television converter device.” Subscribers can access the parental control menu via a password and select specific programming and/or programming classifications from the PCS to be blocked. Similar to the V-chip method, the television converter device stores this information and constantly compares it with the information in programming to be displayed, blocking that programming that the subscriber has selected. The control and flexibility that these methods allow have been well-received by consumers and have become selling points for programming distributors.
Subscribers typically use parent controls on a TV-by-TV basis, i.e. the television programming they deem appropriate for one TV, say in the master bedroom, may not be appropriate for another TV, say the family room where children watch TV unattended. TV-by-TV control is easily implemented using either a V-chip method or the typical PCS method wherein an television converter device is necessary for each TV.
However, a recent trend in television converter device design is for programming distributors to provide their subscribers with one piece of equipment that can provide programming to multiple TVs at the subscriber's location. Such a television converter device is intended to be collocated with one TV (a primary TV), for example a central TV in a family room, but may be connected to one or more other TVs (secondary TVs), for example in the master bedroom, basement, and children's bedrooms. The typical television converter device outputs the same channel of television programming to all connected TVs, but can be controlled via remote controllers from any connected TV. Parents with such a television converter device can then use it to view programming on a secondary TV after the kids have gone to bed or whenever the primary TV is not in use. This innovation of providing one centralized television converter device per subscriber location, as opposed to one television converter device per subscriber TV, has created a problem with respect to the typical PCS method of blocking programming.
Now that the television converter device supports multiple TVs, there is a need to allow television converter device users to block programming to some TVs but not to others. For example, a means to allow violent movies to be displayed a secondary TV in the master bedroom, but not be displayed on the primary TV in the family room. In addition, such a novel parental control means should provide the same flexibility and control consumers have become used to. Furthermore, as it has become common for television converter devices and television converter devices to also store programming for later playback, a parental control means should also work for displaying stored programming. Lastly, such a parental control means should still be simple to use and inexpensive for the programming distributors to include in the television converter device.